"Marzipan" is a mixture of sugar and almonds reduced to a very smooth paste. In general, marzipan can be divided into two groups. One is a heat treated marzipan and it is simply called as "marzipan". The other is a marzipan without heat treatment and it is called as "raw marzipan". In general, marzipan is produced by the following process.
That is, the former marzipan is produced by boiling down a mixture of sugar and water until a temperature of the resulting syrup reaches to 115.degree. to 120.degree. C. Firstly, one third of the boiled syrup (about 30 Baume degree) is added to dried almonds and the whole mixture is stirred and then an additional one third of the syrup is added, when the mixture begins to whiten and solidify. In the case where the syrup is added at once, the crystallization rate becomes slow, which results in formation of coarse crystals and therefore it is not desirable. Accordingly, the syrup is added by portions at several times in order to make the crystallization rate as fast as possible and to make the resulting crystals small and fine. When the whole mixture becomes white by continuing stirring, all the remaining syrup is added. Then, stirring is continued until the syrup is crystallized and the mixture becomes white and crumbly. When the whole mixture becomes hard and solidifies, it is broken, transferred on a marble table and then allowed to stand until it cools to room temperature. Then, it is finely divided with a grinder However, in order to prevent oozing out of a fat ingredient in the nuts, the mixture is not ground to fine powder at once but repeatedly passed through the grinder four times or so while the nip between the rolls of the grinder is reduced step by step to grind the mixture to powder after granulation (particle size of 3 to 5 mm). After it is ground to powder, a small amount of a syrup as well as a flavor, if desired, are added and the mixture is stirred. When the syrup is thoroughly mixed, again, the mixture is passed through the grinder twice or so to obtain a dough having desired consistency The dough (marzipan) thus produced is utilized for confectionery work, cake decoration and the like.
On the other hand, the latter raw marzipan is produced by adding sugar to dried almonds and thoroughly mixed. Then, the mixture is ground with a grinder after granulation. As described above, this grinding is carried out by passing through the grinder three or four times until the whole mixture is almost ground to powder. After completion of grinding, a small amount of whisked egg white is added to the mixture and thoroughly mixed. Then, egg white is further added and stirred until the mixture becomes wet. Further, it is passed through the grinder to obtain a dough having a desired consistency wherein the whole mixture is thoroughly mixed. The dough thus obtained (raw marzipan) is utilized for cake decoration and an ingredient of baked confectionery.
Marzipan or raw marzipan produced according to the above manner are easily used in confectionery work and have good workability because they have excellent stickiness or integrity.
Since almonds which are a main raw material of marzipan are a natural product, their yield is varied due to changes of weather and, further, they are expensive Therefore, hitherto, nuts such as hazel nuts, walnuts, chest nuts and the like have been used as the substitutes instead of almonds. These nuts have physical properties quite similar to those of almonds and, therefore, marzipan can be produced according to the same manner as that using almonds
However, even using these nuts, the situation is not so different in that they are also natural products and expensive.